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Bass humbucker wiring

Adam York

Adam York

Nov 24, 2017
30
3
Kansas City, MO
#1
Alright guys I need some help.

I'm redoing the insides of an old hollow body bass and have all the parts necessary but I can't for the life of me find a wiring diagram for it.

Set up is two humbuckers, one 3-way toggle switch, 1 500k pot (volume), 1 500k pot (tone).
Anyone out there able to give me some direction? I've put so much work in this bass already I'd hate to screw it up now lol.
 
#7
Killed by Death posted a good diagram but your switch needs a ground terminal. Get a washer with a solder lug on it that fits over the threaded bushing on your switch and ground it to ground the body of the switch. That will help reduce hum. Looks like the bushing is 1/2".

1.jpg
 
#8
mech said:
Killed by Death posted a good diagram but your switch needs a ground terminal. Get a washer with a solder lug on it that fits over the threaded bushing on your switch and ground it to ground the body of the switch. That will help reduce hum. Looks like the bushing is 1/2".

View attachment 2944340
Click to expand...

Awesome. This may seem like a silly question but how do I ground it??

Thanks @Killed_by_Death !!
 
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#13
A hollow body won't have shielding. The internal tooth lock washer with the lug in the picture will be good for anti-rotation and help keep the switch from loosening when the wood compresses a taste after the hardware is tightened.
 
#15
EDIT: Derp! I just re-read the posts above and see you posted a link to the pickups you bought. You only have two wires so you don't have to worry about the wire colors ... most of my post (below) doesn't really apply to you. (end EDIT:)

Just a note to say that many pickups do not follow the same color code as the Seymour Duncan diagram. I recently built a bass with a knockoff MM pickup (same as the one Allparts sells) and when wired using the colors in the SD diagram I ended up with the pickup out of phase with itself and or single coil. I had to figure it out with an ohmmeter and my ears to get the phasing correct. Then I wired it with a Series/Parallel/split switch - turned out great. Anyway ... just a heads up that your pickups may not use the same color scheme as SD.

If your pickups already have two of the wires shorted together (like the red and white in the SD diagram) and the other two wired to ground (like Green in the diagram) and hot (like Black in the diagram) -- then the pickup is in series (the two coils of one pickup are in series). You could also wire the pickup to be parallel (the two coils of the pickup parallel).

Then once you have each pickup wiring figured out (whether you decide on series or parallel) then you can connect the two pickups to the switch as in the diagram for the two pickups to be in parallel with each other. (or you could choose a different diagram if you want the two pickups in series with each other). There are just so many options.

With any luck, your pickup wire colors will match the SD diagrams - they have diagrams for many different configs.
 
#16
Yes, I will say one of the many annoyances is that there are no standards in pickup wire color. Invalid Link Removed might help with your pickup.
 
#18
Why does the diagram @Stempelloos shared only have 2 wires on each pickup (ground and to toggle) whereas the one @Killed_by_Death shared had three? (taped off, ground, and to toggle)
Also my pickups only have two wires to work with. This makes me think the taped off part is integral to the pickup and I'm just not seeing it. Is this correct?
 

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